Erich von Falkenhayn (1861-1922), German general and minister of war (1913-1915) and as such one of the principal planners of World War I. In 1914 he replaced Helmuth von Moltke as chief of the army general staff, and he was among those who prepared the Russian (1915), Serbian (1915-1916), and Verdun (1916) offensives. Opposing the generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, he urged the transfer of the German front from the east to the west. When the German army was defeated at Verdun, he was held responsible and was replaced in 1916 by Hindenburg. In the same year he was given command of the army in Romania. He served as a commander in Palestine in 1917 and in Lithuania in 1918-1919.